Recent Sightings

Yesterday was crisp and clear after two days of snow. The birds were out in full force. We saw nuthatches and woodpeckers on the way home from our beach walk, but we only had the short lens on the camera and could not get any decent shots. It was a different story when we came upon a snowy hedge full of house sparrows.


They chattered like crazy until we stopped to take a picture, when they went dead silent. But they didn't move. Real birders hate house sparrows, and for good reason, because they are an exotic and invasive import that displaces indigenous species. But still, I think this is a lovely picture.

At the beach we saw a pair of ring-billed gulls cuddling up for warmth on the ice-covered breakwater.

This is one of Kelly's pictures; I love how she's captured the wave curling up and smashing against the icicles. How nice it is to have a swift shutter.

And how much nicer gulls look against the ice and water than they do against the dumpsters behind the Dominion store.


A little further along four ducks bobbed along in the icy swells. Three females together, and a male diving a little further off. Here is one of the females:

And the male:

Long-tailed ducks!

Kelly was in Newfoundland all week with her mother, who had some surgery. She had some interesting sightings, including American goldfinches and a Northern flicker (no photos), her mother's surgical staples (photos repressed), not to mention the hugely rare and previously undocumented Sally Frances Blowing Her Nose.

It has really been quite a week for us.